Well, in contrast to some of the news coverage I've seen over the years, I'm not being criminally misquoted here, so I'll let it stand.

I will add that there's no such thing as a firm number here because it's all about the marketing and effectiveness - everybody knows that two operators on the same railroad will never produce the exact same results. But what does need to be said and I'll agree with myself is the concept of supporting the railroad by drawing strictly off of the beach market is not large enough to support a for-profit operator. There has to be more, and there could be.

The other thing I'll emphasize is that unlike many places pursuing similar concepts, this railroad is owned by the shortline. While the local government(s) can be of great assistance, in the end, the railroad is still owned by Maryland and Delaware, and that will be a business decision between them and any potential operator on how this can actually work as a viable enterprise for both.

This phase stopped short at the market study - in order to determine economic impact and jobs, the capital rehab costs, visitor impacts, and operating budget have to be estimated to feed the calculations. Very few governments are willing to participate in anything without that impact analysis. That's the next phase here, and it's rather likely that the County and railroad will wish to develop an RFQ.

When we started this, I was warned this is a long-term process to consider all the factors and what’s involved,” [Worcester County Economic Development Director Bill] Badger said. “We had to make sure there was a market opportunity here and that you can’t forget that someone has to take a risk and make money doing this. No one is going to do it just because it’s a great idea, so that’s what phase one validated, that there is an opportunity to operate an excursion train here.

“Now the harder questions come: the business plan, what’s the economic impact, jobs, capital investment,” Badger continued. “I’m optimistic. I was told a bad Polar Express event can draw 18,000-20,000 people, so if you do it well, I think Strasburg has a record of 64,000 people that did a Polar Express event. There is opportunity here, no question.”

When we started this, I was warned this is a long-term process to consider all the factors and what’s involved,” [Worcester County Economic Development Director Bill] Badger said. “We had to make sure there was a market opportunity here and that you can’t forget that someone has to take a risk and make money doing this. No one is going to do it just because it’s a great idea, so that’s what phase one validated, that there is an opportunity to operate an excursion train here.

“Now the harder questions come: the business plan, what’s the economic impact, jobs, capital investment,” Badger continued. “I’m optimistic. I was told a bad Polar Express event can draw 18,000-20,000 people, so if you do it well, I think Strasburg has a record of 64,000 people that did a Polar Express event. There is opportunity here, no question.”

Yes, it does. The logistics of hauling that many people is mind boggling. Even over a 3 or 4 weekend spread, that's 5,000 per weekend. 2,500 per day. If you train hauls 250 passengers, that's 10 trains a day. You also have the issues of parking and staging the guests and on board services, and... and... Yikes!

wesp

Post subject: Worcester County Approves Phase II Study

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:19 pm

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:25 pmPosts: 1835

From Bayside Gazette January 29:

(Jan. 29, 2015) The Worcester County Commissioners also discussed the following issues during the Jan. 20 meeting. Excursion train The commissioners approved funding for the Phase II study of the excursion train proposed to connect Berlin and Snow Hill. This study will offer a detailed business plan and an economic impact analysis that includes financial information on infrastructure. Stone Consulting, which performed the Phase I study, will also complete the next-phase study at a cost of about $20,000. Berlin will contribute $5,000, the Maryland Delaware Railroad will pay $5,000, Snow Hill will contribute $3,000 and the Worcester County Economic Development department will pay the balance of $7,317. No date was given for the study’s delivery.

Well, it's been a long while since anything has happened on this front that I'm aware of - the last article I see is the one I'm offering a link to below, from December 2016. Has there been any updates/progress since then - that others on here might know about and be willing to share? Or is this whole endeavor pretty much done for?

The local press has been silent following the initial series of studies. A few interested parties from local government and the chamber of commerce made a trip to Great Smokey Mountain RR and nothing has been said since then.

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